Madame Blavatsky and the Rise of Esotericism in the Modern Era

Rabu, Agustus 30, 2023

The adventurous young girl was 18 years old when she fled the Sardar Palace where she and her husband lived. Her husband was General Nikifor Blavatsky, Deputy Governor of Erivan in Armenia.

The marriage was only a few months old, but for some reason, this young girl repeatedly tried to escape, wanting to return to her family. When her husband finally gave in, and sent her – accompanied by servants and bodyguards – to Odessa to meet her father, she instead escaped from his bodyguards, and managed to reach Constantinople. From here, the starting point of his first journey around the world for nine years began.

The young girl's name was Helena Petrovna von Hahn. He was of Russian and German nobility on his father's side, and French nobility on his mother's side. Her marriage, which was only a few months old, to General Nikifor Blavatsky, allowed her to use Blavatsky behind her name. Helena Petrova Blavatsky (HPB) is her name which became known later as the founder of the Theosophical Community.

Sardar Palace in Erivan, Armenia.

Madame Blavatsky's round-the-world journey

According to Madame Blavatsky's records, she began her first series of trips around the world in 1849, when she was 18 years old, which means just after the end of her marriage. He visited Europe, America, India, Egypt and Tibet.

He also claims that during this period he met a group of spiritual experts, the "Masters of the Ancient Wisdom", who sent him to Shigatse, Tibet, where they trained him to develop a deeper understanding of the synthesis of religion, philosophy, and science.

Her journey to the Himalayas brought Madame Blavatsky together with the Great White Brotherhood. This group, which would later be known as the Mahatma Lodge, taught Madame Blavatskt ancient sciences and told her to spread this knowledge to the modern world.

Shigatse in Tibet.

But how did Madame Blavatsky come into contact with this secret society so easily?

It seems that it is because inside him is a genetic that emits a spectrum of aura that is in harmony with the members of that secret society. Mainly from his maternal great-grandfather, Prince Pavel Vasilevich Dolgorukov, a prominent Russian military commander during the time of Empress Catherine II.

HPB's great-grandfather, Prince Dolgorukov, was a member of Freemasonry

Arthur Edward Waite (1857 – 1942) an English poet and scientific mystic who wrote extensively on the occult and esoteric, identified Prince Dolgorukov as initiated into Freemasonry in the late 1770s and an important member of the "Strict Observance" (Strict) rites. Observance); there were rumors that he had met with Alessandro Cagliostro and the Count of St. Germain.

Madame Blavatsky in her notes said that her great-grandfather was her main source of inspiration. He became familiar with the tracks his great-grandfather left after he lived in Saratov where he found his great-grandfather's personal library. The library contains various books on esoteric topics.

This is where Madame Blavatsky's interest in the mystical and spiritual world blossomed. It was around 1842, not long after his mother died, circumstances forced him and his two siblings to live in Saratov with his maternal grandparents. his grandfather was Governor of Saratov governorate.

Madame Blavatsky's childhood

Historian Richard Davenport-Hines describes the young Madame Blavatsky as spoiled, wayward and unruly. However, records from relatives say that Madame Blavatsky was a child who enjoyed socializing with lower-class children. On the other hand, he was educated in English, French, art and music.

Madame Blavatsky from the age of 7 had lessons in playing the piano and dance lessons from her mother who made a career in literature and was a novelist. Meanwhile while he was living with his grandparents, while on holiday at the Kalmyk Tumen summer camp, he learned to ride a horse and learned the Tibetan language.

According to some other accounts, in 1844–1845 (around age 13–14) Blavatsky was taken by her father to England, where she visited London and Bath. In London he received piano lessons from the Bohemian composer Ignaz Moscheles, and performed with Clara Schumann.

As a thinker and author of ideas on the synthesis of religion, philosophy and science

Thus, Madame Blavatsky's intellectual power had basically been forged since childhood. This underlies him to be a thinker and writer of synthesizing ideas of religion, philosophy and science. He gained an international following due to his prominence as a Theosophical theorist.

During the 1850s and 1860s, Madame Blavatsky became familiar with Sufism, Kabbalah, Druze religion, and Coptic Christianity.

Paulos Metamon, a Coptic magician and known as the “sheikh of magicians” was his teacher. Albert Rawson is known as Madame Blavatsky's friend during her first journey as well as being HPB's mentor.

In the early 1870s in Cairo, he also came into contact with several other esotericists. Among them was Jamal as-Din al-Afgani, a political reformer, Sufi teacher and Freemason who later went to India around the same time as Madame Blavatsky and Olcott.

Other Cairo figures from whom he drew inspiration were Louis Bimstein, a Polish Jew who later became “Max Theon,” teacher of Cosmic Philosophy, and British vice-consul and Masonic leader Raphael Borg.

After moving to New York in 1873, Madame Blavatsky reunited with Rawson and met her Masonic and Rosicrucian associates, especially Charles Sotheran, who became one of the founders of the Theosophical Society (TS). Sotheran belonged to the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia and the Masonic Rite of Memphis.

TS was also associated with the mysterious Luxor Brotherhood based in Egypt, which Bimstein was affiliated with. Shortly before the founding of the TS, Madame Blavatsky recorded in her book that she had been ordered to establish a secret society such as the Rosicrucian lodge.

Founded the Theosophical Society

In 1875, in New York City, Madame Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society with Olcott and William Quan Judge.

Irving Place, New York, September 7, 1875. A meeting of 17 people took place in the apartment of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. at the meeting, George H. Felt, a Kabbalah follower and author of the book "The Lost Canon of Proportion of The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans" delivered a lecture on ancient science and the occult.

Irving Place in New York, Madame Blavatsky's apartment where members of the Theosophical Society first met.

Those who were present to hear George H Felt's lecture at that time were Freemasonry activists who had long had a keen interest in ancient ritual beliefs, mystical symbols and all things related to the occult.

Also present at the meeting were Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, Charles Shoteran, and William Quan Judge.

Olcott is a former US soldier. Writer at the New York Daily Graphic who is also a member of Freemasonry.

Meanwhile, Charles Sotheran and William Quan Judge are members of Freemasonry who are members of The Scottish Rite (Scottish ritual). That said, the meeting at Blavatsky's apartment at that time was dominated by Freemasonry activists.

After listening to the lecture, Colonel Olcott told Blavatsky, "This meeting will be a good thing for forming a society, inviting and promoting research into the occult." The meeting room itself is called the "Science of Ancient and Proved Magic Meeting Room" (Meeting room for studying ancient knowledge and Magic). Blavatsky agreed to Olcott's proposal.

The results of the small group meeting and discussion then appeared in a newspaper in New York City with the report: "A very important large movement has been introduced in New York, under the leadership of Colonel Henry S Olcott. An organization called the Theosophical Society…”

At its inception, Colonel Henry Steel Olcott was asked as the first president of theosophy and was accompanied by William Q Judge as the organization's secretary. Meanwhile, Blavatsky, despite playing a very large role in this organization, never served as chairman. He only positioned himself as the founder of this organization and wrote books that became "holy scriptures" for members of theosophy throughout the world.

In 1877, Madame Blavatsky published Isis Unveiled , a book outlining her Theosophical worldview. Closely associated with the esoteric doctrines of Hermeticism and Neoplatonism. In the book The Secret Doctrine published in 1888, Blavatsky described Theosophy as a "synthesis of science, religion, and philosophy", stating that it revived the "Ancient Wisdom" that underlies all the world's religions.

There are many great world figures who are impressed with Madame Blavatsky. Albert Einstein reportedly had a copy of The Secret Doctrine on his desk.

Continued on: Madame Blavatsky's influence on Indonesian national figures

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